System and method for closed loop uplink power control

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed that provide a closed loop power control system including adaptively adjusting the desired target SINR over time so as to ultimately achieve a feasible SINR. In one implementation, a method is provided of optimizing uplink closed loop power control in a RAN in which one or more base stations each service a plurality of mobile stations, including: determining a power level for each mobile station for its respective uplink transmissions, including measuring a current achieved SINR for each mobile station; and for each mobile station, adjusting the power level to be sufficiently high to meet desired transmission characteristics but not so high as to cause unnecessary interference with transmissions from other mobile stations, by adjusting a desired target SINR based on factors selected from the following: current and prior achieved SINRs, current and prior interference measurements, and current and prior transmission power control commands.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/050,704 filed on Feb. 23, 2016, the content of which is relied uponand incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 is hereby claimed.

FIELD

The invention relates to the field of transmission power for cellularconsumer equipment

BACKGROUND

Operators of mobile systems, such as Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystems (UMTS) and its offspring including Long Term Evolution (LTE) andLTE-Advanced, continue to rely on advanced features for improving theperformance of their radio access networks (RANs). For improving theperformance of uplink transmissions (i.e., transmissions from the mobilestation or user equipment (UE), to the base station or evolved Node B(eNB)), one such feature is uplink power control. Uplink power controlfacilitates adjusting the transmit power of the UE, to ensure that thepower level is set sufficiently high to meet the desired transmissioncharacteristics (i.e., the desired modulation, coding rate, etc.), butis not excessively high to cause unnecessary interference totransmissions from other UEs in the network.

RANs may employ uplink power control in an open loop manner, i.e.,without any explicit feedback from the eNB to the UE with regards to thepower level at which the UE should transmit on the uplink. While suchsystems have the benefit of simplicity, open loop power control (OLPC)is generally a sub optimal approach. In particular, it often results inoverprovisioning of the UE transmit power, causing excessivesystem-level interference and lowering the UE battery life. With onlyOLPC in place, such overprovisioning is, however, often necessary, ashigh transmit power is required to guarantee achievability of thehighest SNR needed for maximizing link throughput, for countering anyuplink-downlink path loss imbalance, and for overcoming uplinkinterference.

Closed loop power control (CLPC) has also been attempted, and providesfor power control feedback from, e.g., an eNB to the UE. A feedbackcommand (also referred to as a transmit power control (TPC) command)instructs the UE to apply an appropriate adjustment to its transmitpower level. In practical systems, such as 3GPP LTE, the TPC commandbelongs to one out of a discrete set of possible values.

In particular, one procedure that may be employed for implementing CLPCin practice is depicted in the flowchart of FIG. 1, and is based on thealgorithm proposed in “A Simple Distributed Autonomous Power ControlAlgorithm And Its Convergence”, by Foschini and Miljanic, IEEETransactions On Vehicular Technology, Vol. 42, No. 4 (November 1993).The procedure is followed independently for each eNB-UE link in thenetwork, so this approach may also be referred to as a “distributed”power control. The procedure entails defining a desired target value forthe signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) for the eNB-UE link,and such is referred to as dT_SINR, i.e., a desired target SINR. Thedesired target SINR may be, for example, a SINR required to meet acertain BLER (block error rate) criterion, for a desired choice of thetransmission modulation and coding (MCS) parameters. Based on thecurrent received signal from the UE, e.g., such as uplink data symbols,uplink reference symbols, etc., the eNB measures a current achievedSINR, termed a_SINR(t) (step 12), with t denoting the current timeinstant. Depending on the difference in the target SINR and the currentachieved SINR value, i.e., depending on (dT_SINR−a_SINR(t)), the eNBfeeds back a TPC command (denoted TPC(t)) to the UE (step 14).

In a practical set-up, where the set of possible TPC values is fixed apriori (as in 3GPP LTE), the eNB may map the difference (dT_SINR−a_SINR)to the nearest entry in the set of TPC values, and feed it back to theUE. The UE then applies the received TPC command to modify the transmitpower on subsequent transmissions until instructed otherwise (step 16).

The power control approach of FIG. 1 may be applied independently (andin parallel) for each eNB-UE link. At any point of time, the network maycontain a set of these links, with each link attempting to achieve itsown desired target SINR.

Generally, using the approach of FIG. 1, each link achieves its targetSINR, provided that the set of target SINRs is jointly feasible to beginwith. In other words, if the channels between the different eNBs and thedifferent UEs are such that it is possible to achieve the desired targetSINRs for all the links using a certain set of UE transmit power levels,the approach in FIG. 1 would likely lead the UEs to transmit at theserequired power levels.

This Background is provided to introduce a brief context for the Summaryand Detailed Description that follow. This Background is not intended tobe an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter nor beviewed as limiting the claimed subject matter to implementations thatsolve any or all of the disadvantages or problems presented above.

SUMMARY

Drawbacks of the Existing Approach: If the set of desired target SINRsis not feasible to begin with, the approach can be considerably moreproblematic. In particular, the approach may lead the UEs to ramp-uptheir transmit powers, even though the achieved SINR values would not beapproaching the desired target SINR values. In the worst case scenariowhen the UEs are positioned close to corresponding cell edges, it maycause the UEs to continuously increase their transmit powers without anySINR improvements at all. Not only would such an occurrence lower the UEbattery life, but it would also unnecessarily cause high interferencelevels in the network. Consequently, it is important to develop newtechniques that prevent/curtail such uncontrolled and unnecessary powerramp-up, while still providing the SINR gains, when achievable.

Systems and methods according to present principles meet the needs ofthe above in several ways. In particular, systems and methods accordingto present principles employ a closed loop power control (CLPC) systembut with the addition of adaptively adjusting the desired target SINRover time, taking into account the prevailing signal power andinterference power measurements, in order to ultimately approach atarget SINR that is actually feasible. Methods that facilitate suchoperation, and several other improvements are also described.

In one aspect, the invention is directed towards a non-transitorycomputer readable medium, containing instructions for causing acomputing environment to perform a method of optimizing uplink closedloop power control in a RAN in which one or more base stations eachservice a plurality of mobile stations, the method including the stepsof: a. determining a power level for each mobile station for itsrespective uplink transmissions, including measuring a current achievedSINR for each mobile station; and b. for each mobile station, adjustingthe power level to be sufficiently high to meet desired transmissioncharacteristics but not so high as to cause unnecessary interferencewith transmissions from other mobile stations, by adjusting a desiredtarget SINR based on one or more factors selected from the following:current and prior achieved SINRs, current and prior interferencemeasurements, and current and prior transmission power control commands.

Implementations of the invention may include one or more of thefollowing. The adjusting may include sending a transmission powercontrol (TPC) command based on the difference between the desired targetSINR and the current achieved SINR (dT_SINR−a_SINR). The adjusting mayinclude mapping the difference to a nearest entry in a set of possibleTPC values. If the difference is positive, then the method may includesending a transmission power control command to the mobile station toincrease its transmit power. If the difference is negative, then themethod may include sending a transmission power control command to themobile station to decrease its transmit power. The method may furtherinclude determining if the desired target SINR is feasible. The methodmay further include determining if one or more mobile stations areprogressing towards their desired target SINR. The method may furtherinclude: a. if a TPC command sent at a prior time instructs a mobilestation to increase its transmit power, and if an achieved SINR at thecurrent time does not exceed the achieved SINR at the prior time by afirst threshold; and b. if the interference measured at the current timeexceeds the interference measured at the prior time by a secondthreshold, c. then determining a desired target SINR at the currenttime, the determining including reducing the desired target SINR at theprior time, e.g., by an amount equal to half of a difference between thedesired target SINR at the prior time and the achieved SINR at thecurrent time, or by another amount that is some function of thedifference between the desired target SINR at the prior time and theachieved SINR at the current time. The first threshold may be atime-dependent parameter and may be a function of the transmission powercontrol at the prior time, the achieved SINR at the prior time, and theinterference level at the prior time. The first threshold mayalternatively be a constant parameter and/or may be a function of apositive TPC command. The second threshold may be a constant, and/or maybe a function of a positive TPC command.

The method may further include determining if a rise in a measuredinterference level over a prior duration exceeds a threshold, and if so,maintaining the desired target SINR, whereby situations may beidentified when interference rises but it is undesired to reduce thetarget SINR. The method may further include providing a lower bound onthe desired target SINR value, where the lower bound is a SINR valuerequired to support reliable communication with a lowest possiblemodulation and coding rate combination. The method may further includedetermining if a current achieved SINR is close to the desired targetSINR, or if the mobile station transmit power level exceeds a certainthreshold, and if one or both conditions are met, then sending a TPCcommand to the mobile station to instruct the mobile station to reduceits transmit power, whereby a mobile station transmit power may bereduced when feasible without impacting performance of a link. Thecurrent achieved SINR may be determined to be close to the desiredtarget SINR if the magnitude of their difference is lower than thesmallest possible magnitude of a nonzero value TPC command. The methodmay further include resetting the target SINR to a higher value, andtransmitting a TPC to a mobile station to cause its power level toincrease, if determined interference levels are determined to have beenreduced beyond a threshold level. The method may further include: a.periodically or occasionally, resetting the target SINR to a valueexceeding a current achieved SINR by a differential amount; b. wherebyproblems associated with increasing a target SINR based on a decrease inmeasured interference are substantially or wholly avoided. Thedifferential amount may be one 1 dB. The method may further includeproviding an upper bound on the desired target SINR value, where theupper bound is the SINR required to support a largest modulation andcoding rate combination, or where the upper bound is adaptive over timeand based on the largest anticipated MCS that would be used, given thepayload information.

In another implementation, the invention is directed towards a method ofoptimizing uplink closed loop power control in a RAN in which one ormore base stations each service a plurality of mobile stations, themethod including the steps of: a. determining a power level for eachmobile station for its respective uplink transmissions, includingmeasuring a current achieved SINR for each mobile station; and b. foreach mobile station, adjusting the power level to be sufficiently highto meet desired transmission characteristics but not so high as to causeunnecessary interference to transmissions from other mobile stations, byadjusting a desired target SINR based on one or more factors selectedfrom the following: current and prior achieved SINRs, current and priorinterference measurements, and current and prior transmission powercontrol commands.

Advantages of the invention may include, in certain embodiments, one ormore of several link level and system level advantages, as discussedbelow. In addition, enabling CLPC in the ways described overcomes thebottleneck noted above. Specifically, the disclosed CLPC methodsfacilitate achieving high throughputs with optimized (rather thanexcessively high) levels of UE transmit powers, bringing down theinterference levels, resulting in system level capacity improvements,and enhancing UE battery life. Further, they provide the ability to rideover steady uplink interference, e.g., interference seen in a small celldeployment (i.e., a deployment with smaller cell sizes compared to thesizes of traditional macro cells) from the UEs connected to macro cells,and also offer robustness by helping counter the imbalance in uplink anddownlink path losses, all the while resulting in optimized (rather thanexcessive) uplink transmit power levels, thereby leading to increasedsystem capacity. Other advantages will be understood from thedescription that follows, including the figures and claims.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form. The concepts are further described in the DetailedDescription section. Elements or steps other than those described inthis Summary are possible, and no element or step is necessarilyrequired. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended foruse as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.The claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solveany or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart for a method of implementing CLPC based onprior art.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative mobile telecommunications environment inwhich systems and methods according to present principles may bepracticed, in particular a general arrangement including eNodeBs anduser equipments.

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative mobile telecommunications environmentin which systems and methods according to present principles may bepracticed, in particular related to small cell RANs.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method according to present principlesemploying power control with adaptive target SINR, in oneimplementation.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary code snippet related to the determination ofthe instances when it is desired to adjust the target SINR, and theappropriate adjustment to be applied to the target SINR, according topresent principles.

FIG. 6 shows another exemplary code snippet related to the determinationof instances when it is desired to adjust the target SINR, and theappropriate adjustment to be applied to the target SINR, according topresent principles.

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary code snippet related to the determination ofinstances when it may be desired to reduce the UE transmit power, andthe appropriate reduction to be applied, according to presentprinciples.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a method for power control with adaptive targetSINR incorporating both target SINR reduction and target SINR increase,as well as UE transmit power minimization, as per present principles.

Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. Elements arenot to scale unless otherwise noted.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative mobile telecommunications environment 100in which the present invention may be practiced. The mobiletelecommunications environment 100, in this illustrative example, isarranged as an LTE system as described by the Third GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) as an evolution of the GSM/UMTS standards(Global System for Mobile communication/UMTS). It is emphasized,however, that the present principles described herein may also beapplicable to other network types and protocols. For example, othernetwork types and protocols that may be employed include, withoutlimitation HSPA, LTE, CDMA2000, GSM, IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi, 802.16 etc. or amixture of technologies such as with a multi-standard radio (MSR) node(e.g., LTE/HSPA, GSM/HS/LTE, CDMA2000/LTE, etc). For example, referringto FIG. 3, an implementation within small cell RANs is described.

Referring to FIG. 2, the environment 100 may include a number of cells155, each generally including an Evolved Node B (eNB) base station 155′,as shown. A given user equipment (UE) 125 (shown as UE 125 ₁-125 ₅)generally achieves connectivity to a mobile operator EPC network 140through the cell 155 in the environment 100. The mobile operator EPCnetwork 140 is typically configured to communicate with a publicswitched telephone network (PSTN) 145 to carry circuit-switched traffic,as well as for communicating with an external packet-switched networksuch as the Internet 150.

As noted, in some implementations, the mobile telecommunicationsenvironment 100′ may include a small cell RAN. In this case, andreferring to FIG. 3, the environment 100′ includes an enterprise 105 inwhich a small cell RAN 110 is implemented. The small cell RAN 110includes a plurality of RNs (radio nodes, or, base stations) 115 ₁ . . .115 _(N). Each RN 115 has a radio coverage area (graphically depicted inthe drawings as a hexagonal shape) that is commonly termed a small cell.A small cell may also be referred to as a femtocell. Using terminologydefined by 3GPP, the small cell Radio node may also be referred to as aHome Evolved Node B (HeNB). In the description that follows, the term“cell” typically means the combination of a base station and its radiocoverage area unless otherwise indicated. A representative cell isindicated by reference numeral 120 in FIG. 3.

The size of the enterprise 105 and the number of cells deployed in thesmall cell RAN 110 may vary. In typical implementations, the enterprise105 can be from 50,000 to 500,000 square feet and encompass multiplefloors and the small cell RAN 110 may support hundreds to thousands ofusers using mobile communication platforms such as mobile phones,smartphones, tablet computing devices, and the like (referred to as UEsand indicated by reference numerals 125 _(1-N) in FIG. 3). However, theforegoing is intended to be illustrative and the solutions describedherein can be typically expected to be readily scalable either upwardsor downwards as the needs of a particular usage scenario demand.

In this particular illustrative example, the small cell RAN 110 includesone or more SNs (represented as a single SN 130 in FIG. 3) that manageand control the RNs 115. In alternative implementations, the managementand control functionality may be incorporated into a RN, distributedamong nodes, or implemented remotely, i.e., using infrastructureexternal to the small cell RAN 110. The RNs 115 are coupled to the SN130 over a direct or local area network (LAN) connection (not shown inFIG. 3) typically using secure IPsec tunnels. In alternativeimplementations, the connection between the RNs 115 and SN 130 may beover a wireless link or wireless local area network (W-LAN) connection(not shown in FIG. 3). The SN 130 aggregates voice and data traffic fromthe RNs 115 and provides connectivity over an IPsec tunnel to a securitygateway SeGW 135 in an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 140 network of a mobileoperator.

Implementations of present principles will now be discussed. Manyimplementations of systems and methods according to present principlesmay be advantageously employed in virtually any cellular mobile system.Where the implementation is specific to a small cell RAN, such as thatof FIG. 3, this aspect will be noted within the text.

Referring to the flowchart 200 of FIG. 4, in one implementation of asystem and method according to present principles, the unnecessary powerramp-up in CLPC may be curtailed by adaptively adjusting the desiredtarget SINR over time. Specifically, and considering a particular eNB-UElink, as above an attempt may be made to achieve a certain desiredtarget SINR. Steps of this process include measuring the currentachieved SINR (a_SINR(t)) (step 222). Based on subsequently issued TPCcommands, subsequently achieved SINR values, and/or subsequentlymeasured interference levels, the target SINR is then altered, modified,or adapted (step 224) to better reflect the SINR that can actually beachieved, rather than persistently trying to achieve a SINR which infact appears to be infeasible.

After a new target SINR is set (say at time instant t), and towardsachieving this desired target, e.g., dT_SINR(t), the eNB then sends acurrent TPC command to the UE based on the difference, e.g.,dT_SINR(t)−a_SINR(t), and in some implementations may map the differenceto a nearest entry in a set of possible TPC values (step 226). The UEthen applies the received TPC command to modify the transmit power onsubsequent transmissions (step 228).

Using the method according to FIG. 4, uncontrolled UE transmit powerincreases may be eliminated and other benefits achieved.

In another implementation according to present principles, the mechanismused to adjust the desired target SINR may be analyzed, and adetermination made as to whether the updated or adjusted target SINR iscausing the CLPC to indeed progress towards achievement of the targetSINR. Considered in the analysis of the adjustment includes recentissued TPC commands, recent achieved SINR values, and recentmeasurements of interference levels. These parameters are jointlyassessed to determine the CLPC progression.

For example, if the last issued TPC command instructed the UE toincrease its transmit power, but the latest measured SINR value does notshow any corresponding increase compared to the last measured SINR, suchmay be an indication that the most recent application of CLPC was noteffective. If there are also increased levels of interference power,such may indicate that another UE ramped up its own transmit power, andin this case the system may determine that the desired target SINRrequires reduction to curtail further power ramp-up. One specificimplementation of this adaptation, applied at time instant t, is shownby the code snippet of FIG. 5.

In this implementation, if the TPC command sent at time (t−1) instructsthe UE to increase its transmit power, and if the achieved SINR at timet does not exceed the achieved SINR at time (t−1) by a certain thresholdDelta1, and if the interference measured at time t exceeds theinterference measured at time (t−1) by a certain threshold Delta2, thenthe desired target SINR at time t may be obtained by reducing thedesired target SINR at time (t−1) by an amount equal to, e.g., half ofthe difference between the desired target SINR at time (t−1) and theachieved SINR at time t. All power level measurements, e.g., TPCcommand, SINR, interference, etc. are assumed to be in decibels (dB)scale, as is typical for power measurements. The proposed embodimentscan be easily stated in another scale (e.g., linear scale) simply bymapping the dB scale values to another scale.

In this description, the logic contained in the code snippet of FIG. 5is applied at any particular time instant (t), and implements oneiteration of the overall CLPC operation. In the description below,applications of the code snippet of FIG. 5 are used.

In one implementation, the choice of the thresholds Delta1 and Delta2 isconsidered, which are the thresholds used to gauge changes to the SINRand interference power levels, respectively.

For example, an anticipated increase in the SINR may be a function ofthe previous TPC command, as well as a function of thepreviously-measured SINR and interference levels. Consequently, Delta1can be chosen to be a time-dependent parameter, which may be a functionof TPC(t−1), a_SINR(t−1), and Intf(t−1). Alternatively, Delta1 may alsobe picked to be a constant parameter, meant to gauge a minimal increasein the SINR that is expected from a positive TPC command, i.e., acommand that instructs the UE to raise its transmit power, in order toconclude that the previous iteration of CLPC provided enough SINR gainso as to keep the target SINR unchanged. As a particular example, Delta1may be picked to be some function of the positive TPC command with thesmallest magnitude. For example, a smallest positive TPC command couldbe 1 dB, and such a value may be used for Delta1. Delta1 may also be afunction of TPC(t−1), a_SINR(t−1), and Intf(t−1).

Regarding Delta2, the same may be used as a threshold to assess whetherthe interference levels have increased sufficiently to assume thatanother UE is also ramping up its own transmit power. In the same way asthe choice for Delta1, Delta2 may be selected to be some function of thepositive TPC command with the smallest magnitude. For example, apositive TPC command could be 1 dB, and this value could be employed forDelta2.

In another embodiment, instead of using multiple separate criterions asin FIG. 5 (which shows three criterions: one based on TPC, one based onachieved SINR, and one based on the interference levels), a reduced setof criterions, or even a single overall joint criterion may beformulated, to determine if it is desired to adjust the target SINR. Forinstance, the criteria on achieved SINR and interference levels (i.e.,the second and third criterions in FIG. 5) may be combined such that thetarget SINR is adjusted if the following condition is met:a_SINR(t)<f(a_SINR(t−1), Intf(t), Intf(t−1), TPC(t−1)), for somefunction f( ).

While the increased level of interference is used in the precedingembodiments as an indication that a neighboring cell's UE also ramped upits power, an increase in the interference may also be attributed toother factors. In particular, it could be caused by the appearance of anew UE that starts off by transmitting at a high power, e.g., such a“new” UE could be served by an eNB with a much larger coverage area,requiring larger UE transmit powers. Put another way, this new UE couldbe served by a macrocell that is in the vicinity of a deployment ofsmall cells. In such a scenario, the system may determine that it isbetter to not reduce the desired target SINR value because theinterference caused by this new UE can be overcome by increased transmitpowers, e.g., achieved using CLPC. This implementation would beparticularly illustrated by the small cell implementation shown in FIG.3.

In another implementation, to identify such situations when interferencerises but it is undesired to reduce the target SINR, another criterionmay be included and employed to decide whether to reduce the targetSINR. In particular, if a maximum instantaneous jump in the measuredinterference levels in a past recent duration of time, e.g., theduration of time since the last iteration of CLPC, exceeds a certainthreshold e.g., Delta3, a reduction in target SINR level may becontraindicated. In other words, if the interference increase is ratherdrastic, i.e., unlikely to have been caused by the CLPC based increasein the transmit power of another UE, a reduction of the target SINRlevel may be ruled out.

FIG. 6 illustrates a code snippet in which this test is implemented, andin which the modified criterion as described is depicted in the last ofthe “If” conditions. The code snippet of FIG. 6 uses interference levelmeasurements at time t and (t−1) only, so that in order to assess adrastic recent jump in the interference, e.g., a jump greater than apredetermined threshold criterion, the difference in the interferencelevels at times t and (t−1) is simply considered. Larger time windowsmay also be considered with suitable modifications, e.g., the maximum ofthe instantaneous interference jumps, i.e., the maximum of thedifference in interference between consecutive measurements may becompared with a threshold. For the choice of the threshold Delta3, asthe aim is to determine if the interference increase has been caused byanother UE ramping up its power based on CLPC or not, a suitable choicefor Delta3 is to use a function of the positive TPC command with thelargest magnitude. In the LTE standard, the largest TPC command is 3 dB,and Delta3 can be selected to be this value.

While the above described embodiments present some specificimplementations of target SINR adaptation mechanisms, otherimplementations are also possible, and which include certainsimilarities to the above, e.g., are based on previous TPC commands,achieved SINR values, and interference levels. As one example, areduction in a target SINR may be performed in another manner, such asby reducing the target SINR by another fraction, rather than one-half,of the difference (dT_SINR(t−1)−a_SINR(t)). In addition, the reductionin target SINR could also be made to be a function of a change in theachieved SINR, e.g., as a function of a_SINR(t)−a_SINR(t−1)), and/or afunction of the change in the interference, e.g., as a function ofIntf(t)−Intf(t−1). And as above, while the preceding embodiments onlyconsider measurements from time instant t and (t−1), measurements from alonger window can also be considered, e.g., by taking averages orperforming other sorts of filtering of the recent measurements.

The use of the time indices t and (t−1) in the preceding embodiments isonly exemplary, and is meant to assist in the description of the ideasdisclosed here. In practice, systems and methods according to presentprinciples may be applied with various real world modifications. As anexample, a TPC command may not actually have been issued at the specifictime instant (t−1). In this case, it would be understood that, e.g., alast issued TPC command may be considered. As another example, due totransmission and processing delays, the last issued TPC command may notactually have been applied at the UE until a later or current timeinstant. In other words, that TPC command may still be in-flight. Inthis case, its impact on the achieved SINR would not be evident untilthe current time instant, and the target SINR adaptation would bemodified appropriately, to either take into account only those TPCcommands that would have already been applied, or alternately, by usingknowledge of the in-flight TPC commands to predict the changes in themeasured SINR and interference values that the same are expected tocause. As yet another example, the SINR adaptation procedure describedabove may not be applied at every possible opportunity, e.g., at everyopportunity where SINR measurements and interference measurements areavailable and where previous TPC commands have already been applied, butonly at a subset of such time instants, e.g., in a periodic oroccasional manner. At a general level, systems and methods disclosedhere provide for adaptation of the target SINR value, based on factorssuch as prior issued TPC commands, current and previous SINRmeasurements, and current and previous interference measurements.

In another embodiment, a lower bound may be placed on the desired targetSINR value. In particular, the implementations described above proposereduction of the target SINR value, often when it is deemed that theprevious iterations of CLPC did not provide significant enough SINRgains. In some cases a bound may be placed on how low the target SINRmay be, so as to ensure the achievement of reliable transmission with aminimum possible modulation and coding rate parameters. Further, lowerbounding the target SINR value also ensures fairness amongst competingUEs. In the 3GPP LTE standard, the lowest MCS transmission typicallyrequires an SINR close to −5 dB. Fortunately, in even the most severeinterference scenarios, this SINR may still be achievable by a UE, andhence using a lower bound close to this value would ensure some fairnessamongst competing UEs.

As described, implementations described above have an advantage in thatthey can curtail an unnecessary ramp up in UE power. In some instances,the UE power may still be above the absolutely minimum levels requiredto achieve the current SINR, e.g., if the target SINR adjustment is notaggressive enough. In other instances, it is possible that some of theother UEs that were previously causing high interference have adjustedtheir transmission powers, so that the current SINR level may beattainable with lower UE transmit power. Towards realizing such UEtransmit power minimization, in another embodiment, systems and methodsaccording to present principles facilitate reducing the UE transmitpower whenever it is feasible without impacting the performance of thelink. Specifically, a mechanism may be employed such that, if thecurrent achieved SINR is close to the current value of the desiredtarget SINR, e.g., if the difference in the current achieved SINR andthe current desired target SINR is lower than a predetermined threshold,e.g., the smallest possible magnitude of a non-zero valued TPC command,or, if the UE transmit power level exceeds a certain threshold P0, theTPC command sent by the eNB to the UE may instruct the UE to reduce itstransmit power rather than maintain the current power level. Forexample, the threshold power P0 may be a function of P_max, the maximumpossible UE transmit power. In this specific case of LTE, P_max is 23dBm. In one implementation, P0 may be set equal to (P_max−constant),where the constant may be, e.g., 1 dB.

This mechanism may be implemented by the code snippet of FIG. 7. In FIG.7, min(|NonZeroTPC|) is used to denote the smallest possible magnitudeof a non-zero valued TPC command. The issued TPC command is−min(|NegTPC|), where min(|NegTPC|) is used to denote thenegative-valued TPC command. This is exemplary, and in general, anotherallowed negative TPC command value may be issued. As before, allcommands are assumed to be in the dB scale.

If the set of possible TPC commands contains a TPC command of value 0dB, then an alternate way to check the first condition in the “if”statement of FIG. 7 is to check that the TPC command obtained by mappingthe difference (dT_SINR(t)−a_SINR(t)) to the nearest value in the set ofpossible TPC commands is actually 0 dB.

Note that the embodiment described above impacts step 226 in the CLPCflowchart 200 shown in FIG. 4. In particular, while performing step 226,if the conditions specified above in FIG. 7 are met, then the eNB wouldissue a TPC command of −min(|NegTPC|), otherwise, as described before(and as shown in step 226 of FIG. 4), the TPC command is issued based onthe value of the difference (dT_SINR(t)−a_SINR(t)), e.g., by mapping thedifference to the nearest entry in the set of possible TPC values.

The preceding embodiment lead to a reduction in the UE's transmit powerwhen the conditions in FIG. 7 are met, and if it so happens that thisreduction subsequently causes a reduction in the achieved link SINR,such a reduction would be momentary. Specifically, in the next iterationof CLPC, the achieved SINR would fall below the desired target SINR,prompting the eNB to issue a positive TPC command, reinstating the SINRto the original higher value. On the other hand, if a reduction in theUE's transmit power caused by the preceding embodiment is notaccompanied with a corresponding degradation of the link SINR, thepurpose of this arrangement would be served, as the same SINR would havebeen achieved with lower UE transmit power.

In yet another embodiment, adaptation or adjustment of a desired targetSINR may be instituted, but the adaptation or adjustment intended toincrease, rather than decrease, the value of the desired target SINR. Inmore detail, the previous implementations focused on reducing the targetSINR value whenever it was ascertained that the existing value appearedto be infeasible. It is reiterated that the feasibility of the targetSINR depends critically on the interference from other UEs. Insituations where the other UEs also ramp-up their transmit powers,trying to achieve their own target SINR, causing an increased level ofinterference, it may be desired to lower the desired SINR target, asdiscussed above. However, there may be situations where an interferencecauses a UE to eventually stop transmitting, or where the UE moves away.In such situations, achieving a higher SINR becomes feasible, and hencethe desired SINR target value may be increased.

One possible mechanism to determine the feasibility of increasing thetarget SINR is to gauge the change in the interference levels. Forinstance, if the interference levels go down significantly, beyond acertain threshold, the target SINR may correspondingly be increased. Thelevel of increase in the target SINR would generally depend on theinterference levels and the current SINR.

In yet a further embodiment, an alternate mechanism may be employed forincreasing the desired target SINR value. While increasing the targetSINR based on a decrease in the measured interference as described aboveis in many cases possible, in some practical scenarios, it may beproblematic. For instance, in case of a “bursty” interferer, which is aninterferer that transmits in bursts, rather than continuously, it maynot be desired to increase the target SINR based simply on aninstantaneous reduction in the interference levels, as such can lead tounstable system behavior.

To overcome this challenge, one approach for facilitating a target SINRincrease is as follows. Periodically or occasionally, the target SINRmay be reset to a value that exceeds the current achieved SINR by asmall amount (e.g., 1 dB, although a number of other values may beemployed, e.g., 0.5 dB, 2 dB, just so long as the value is reasonableand not too large or small), independently of any other factors. Notethat, given the description above of systems and methods according topresent principles that continuously reduce the desired target SINRtowards a value that is feasible, it is anticipated that at most pointsof time, the target SINR value would be in close proximity to thecurrent achieved SINR. Consequently, the mechanism of this embodiment,that resets the target SINR to a value slightly exceeding the currentachieved SINR, is likely to cause an increase in the target SINR value,as desired. Of course, it is possible that, in some cases, the existingtarget SINR would be significantly larger than the current achievedSINR, e.g., if the target SINR reduction mechanism has not operated longenough, in which case resetting the target SINR to a value slightlyexceeding the current SINR is not desirable. Hence, in oneimplementation, the target SINR may be reset to the greater of thefollowing two values: current achieved SINR plus a constant (e.g., 1dB), or the existing value of the target SINR.

In this method, the preceding described reset of the target SINR may beperformed at a much slower time scale as compared to the time scale atwhich the reduction of the target SINR described in the earlierembodiments is carried out. As one example, in 3GPP LTE systems, wheresubframes are transmitted every 1 ms, while the potential reduction oftarget SINR may be considered in every subframe where the UE isscheduled, the increase in target SINR may be applied only in every 10thsuch subframe. Although in this approach the target SINR was increasedevery so often, periodically or occasionally, due to the presence of theearlier disclosed mechanisms for target SINR reduction and UE transmitpower reduction, systems and methods according to present principlesimplementing this approach may not cause any sustained undue increase inthe target SINR and UE transmit powers. For instance, if the blindlyincreased target SINR is not actually feasible, it may be ascertainedautomatically in the next iteration of CLPC, which would then lead to areduction of the target SINR and UE transmit power.

In another implementation, the desired target SINR value may be upperbounded, to prevent the same from rising beyond what is required. Onepossibility is to use an upper bound that matches the SINR required tomeet the BLER criterion for the largest allowed MCS value (which in LTEwould be close to 20 dB). Often, however, transmissions with the largestallowed MCS may not be required, e.g., for small payload sizes.Consequently, the upper bound on the target SINR may be picked, e.g.,adaptively, based on the largest anticipated MCS that would be used,given the payload information, and so on.

The flowchart 300 of FIG. 8 provides a combined depiction of some of themethods disclosed in the preceding embodiments. The same also depictsCLPC operation over time, rather than depicting it at only one timeinstant, as was considered in FIG. 4. At step 302, the initial value ofthe desired target SINR is denoted as dT_SINR_0, with the initial timeinstant being T_0. Following that, using t to denote the current timeinstant, as in the steps of FIG. 4, in step 304, the eNB measures thecurrent achieved SINR, i.e., the SINR achieved at time t. In step 308,the eNB adjusts the target SINR (if t>T_0), using one or more of thevarious implementations described above. In the depiction in FIG. 8, thetarget SINR reduction mechanism is considered periodically, with theperiod being T_red. The target SINR increase mechanism is alsoconsidered periodically, with the period being T_inc. As discussedabove, in many cases, T_inc would be significantly larger than T_red. Instep 306, the eNB computes the TPC command to be sent to the UE. The UEtransmit power minimization mechanism may be employed, wherein, if thecurrent achieved SINR is close enough to the current value of thedesired target SINR, or if the UE transmit power has exceeded a certainthreshold, the eNB transmits a negative TPC command. Finally, in step312, the UE applies the received TPC command to determine its subsequenttransmit power. The entire process, beginning from step 304, thenrepeats for the next time instant.

In the uplink of a cellular system consisting of multiple base stations(or eNBs) and mobile users (or UEs), CLPC may potentially be performedin a distributed manner or a centralized manner. While a centralizedapproach is in some ways optimal, the same also presents significantimplementation challenges, such as the existence of a central entitythat communicates with all eNBs, possesses channel state information forall eNodeB-UE links in the entire system, and can perform joint userselection/FFR/scheduling across all the UEs in the system. On the otherhand, in distributed CLPC, each eNodeB-UE link performs CLPCindependently.

While a classical distributed CLPC algorithm can surprisingly achievethe same set of target SINRs (across the different eNodeB-UE links) aswould be achieved with a centralized approach, it also has severepitfalls. Specifically, if the set of target SINRs is not feasible tobegin with, distributed CLPC can result in an uncontrolled rise in theUE transmit powers, leading to severe interference in the network andconsequent system capacity degradation.

Systems and methods disclosed here generally apply the distributedapproach for CLPC, and disclose methods to achieve the gains of CLPC,i.e., methods to achieve jointly feasible SINRs for different eNodeB-UElinks in a distributed manner, while overcoming the potential runawayproblems, e.g., high interference, encountered in classical distributedCLPC approaches. However, the distributed approach is not required inall implementations.

What has been described are systems and methods of using uplink powercontrol, e.g., from a mobile station or UE to a base station or eNB, tofacilitate adjusting the transmit power of the UE to ensure that thepower level is set sufficiently high to meet the desired transmissioncharacteristics, e.g., the desired modulation, coding rate, etc., but isnot set excessively high to cause unnecessary interference withtransmissions from other UEs.

Several aspects of telecommunication systems will now be presented withreference to various apparatus and methods described in the foregoingdetailed description and illustrated in the accompanying drawing byvarious blocks, modules, components, circuits, steps, processes,algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as “elements”). Theseelements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computersoftware, or any combination thereof. Whether such elements areimplemented as hardware or software depends upon the particularapplication and design constraints imposed on the overall system. By wayof example, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combinationof elements may be implemented with a “processing system” that includesone or more processors. Examples of processors include microprocessors,microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines,gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardwareconfigured to perform the various functionalities described throughoutthis disclosure. One or more processors in the processing system mayexecute software.

Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instructionsets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, softwaremodules, applications, software applications, software packages,routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution,procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. Thesoftware may reside on non-transitory computer-readable media.Non-transitory computer-readable media may include, by way of example, amagnetic storage device (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strip),an optical disk (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD)),a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., card, stick, key drive),random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM(PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), aregister, a removable disk, and any other suitable non-transient mediafor storing or transmitting software. The computer-readable media may beresident in the processing system, external to the processing system, ordistributed across multiple entities including the processing system.Computer-readable media may be embodied in a computer-program product.By way of example, a computer-program product may include one or morecomputer-readable media in packaging materials. Those skilled in the artwill recognize how best to implement the described functionalitypresented throughout this disclosure depending on the particularapplication and the overall design constraints imposed on the overallsystem.

Variations of the above described systems and methods will be understoodto one of ordinary skill in the art given this teaching.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of optimizing uplink closed looppower control in a Radio Access Network (RAN) in which one or more basestations each service a plurality of mobile stations, the methodcomprising the steps of: at each base station, for each mobile stationconnected to the base station, determining a transmit power level forthe mobile station's uplink transmissions, wherein the determining ofthe transmit power level comprises measuring a current achieved signalto interference plus noise ratio (SINR) for each mobile station andwherein each mobile station has a desired target SINR; updating thedesired target SINR for each mobile station based on the currentachieved SINR and prior SINR measurements to obtain a current desiredtarget SINR; and for each mobile station, adjusting the transmit powerlevel by sending a transmission power control (TPC) command to themobile station based on a difference between the current desired targetSINR and the current achieved SINR, wherein the desired target SINR isadaptively adjusted over time to ultimately approach a target SINR thatis feasible.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting thetransmit power level further comprises mapping the difference to anearest entry in a set of possible TPC values.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising determining if the desired target SINR is feasible.4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining if one or moremobile stations are progressing towards their desired target SINR. 5.The method of claim 1, further comprising determining if a rise in ameasured interference level over a prior duration exceeds a threshold,and if so, maintaining the desired target SINR, whereby situations maybe identified when interference rises but it is undesired to reduce thedesired target SINR.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingproviding a lower bound on the desired target SINR, wherein the lowerbound is a SINR value required to support reliable communication with alowest possible modulation and coding rate combination.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising determining if the current achieved SINR isclose to the desired target SINR, or if the transmit power level of themobile station exceeds a certain threshold, and if one or bothconditions are met, then sending a TPC command to the mobile station toinstruct the mobile station to reduce its transmit power, whereby thetransmit power level of the mobile station may be reduced when feasiblewithout impacting performance of a link.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein the current achieved SINR is determined to be close to thedesired target SINR if the magnitude of their difference is lower thanthe smallest possible magnitude of a nonzero value TPC command.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising resetting the desired target SINRto a higher value, and transmitting a TPC command to a mobile station tocause its power level to increase, if determined interference levels aredetermined to have been reduced beyond a threshold level.
 10. The methodof claim 1, further comprising periodically or occasionally resettingthe desired target SINR to a value exceeding the current achieved SINRby a differential amount, whereby problems associated with increasingthe desired target SINR based on a decrease in measured interference aresubstantially or wholly avoided.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein thedifferential amount is a constant parameter or is a function of thecurrent achieved SINR.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprisingproviding an upper bound on the desired target SINR, wherein the upperbound is a SINR required to support a largest modulation and coding ratecombination, or wherein the upper bound is adaptive over time and basedon a largest anticipated modulation and coding parameter that would beused, given payload information.
 13. A node for optimizing uplink closedloop power control in a Radio Access Network (RAN) in which one or morebase stations each service a plurality of mobile stations, the nodeconfigured to: at each base station, for each mobile station connectedto the base station, determine a transmit power level for the mobilestation's uplink transmissions, wherein the node is configured todetermine the transmit power level by being configured to measure acurrent achieved signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) for eachmobile station, and wherein each mobile station has a desired targetSINR; update the desired target SINR for each mobile station based onthe current achieved SINR and prior SINR measurements to obtain acurrent desired target SINR; and for each mobile station, adjust thetransmit power level by sending a transmission power control (TPC)command to the mobile station based on a difference between the currentdesired target SINR and the current achieved SINR, wherein the node isconfigured to adaptively adjust the desired target SINR over time toultimately approach a target SINR that is feasible.
 14. The node ofclaim 13, wherein the node is configured to determine the desired targetSINR at a current time when: a TPC command sent at a prior timeinstructs a mobile station to increase its transmit power, and anachieved SINR at the current time does not exceed the achieved SINR atthe prior time by a first threshold; and an interference level measuredat the current time exceeds an interference level measured at the priortime by a second threshold, wherein the node is configured to determinethe desired target SINR at the current time by being configured toreduce the desired target SINR at the prior time by an amount that is afunction of a difference between the desired target SINR at the priortime and the achieved SINR at the current time.
 15. The node of claim13, wherein the node is further configured to map the difference to anearest entry in a set of possible TPC values.
 16. The node of claim 13,wherein the node is further configured to determine if the desiredtarget SINR is feasible.
 17. The node of claim 13, wherein the node isfurther configured to determine if one or more mobile stations areprogressing towards their desired target SINR.
 18. The node of claim 13,wherein the node is further configured to determine if a rise in ameasured interference level over a prior duration exceeds a threshold,and if so, the node being configured to maintain the desired targetSINR, whereby situations may be identified when interference rises butit is undesired to reduce the desired target SINR.
 19. The node of claim13, wherein the node is further configured provide a lower bound on thedesired target SINR, wherein the lower bound is a SINR value required tosupport reliable communication with a lowest possible modulation andcoding rate combination.
 20. The node of claim 13, wherein the node isfurther configured to determine if the current achieved SINR is close tothe desired target SINR, or if the mobile station transmit power levelexceeds a certain threshold, and if one or both conditions are met, thenthe node being configured to send a TPC command to the mobile station toinstruct the mobile station to reduce its transmit power, whereby thetransmit power level of the mobile station may be reduced when feasiblewithout impacting performance of a link.
 21. The node of claim 20,wherein the current achieved SINR is determined to be close to thedesired target SINR if the magnitude of their difference is lower thanthe smallest possible magnitude of a nonzero value TPC command.
 22. Thenode of claim 13, wherein the node is further configured to reset thedesired target SINR to a higher value, and transmit a TPC command to themobile station to cause its power level to increase, if determinedinterference levels are determined to have been reduced beyond athreshold level.
 23. The node of claim 13, wherein the node is furtherconfigured to periodically or occasionally reset the desired target SINRto a value exceeding the current achieved SINR by a differential amount,whereby problems associated with increasing the desired target SINRbased on a decrease in measured interference are substantially or whollyavoided.
 24. The node of claim 13, wherein the node is furtherconfigured to provide an upper bound on the desired target SINR, whereinthe upper bound is a SINR required to support a largest modulation andcoding rate combination, or wherein the upper bound is adaptive overtime and based on a largest anticipated modulation and coding parameterthat would be used, given payload information.